Anybody ever seen any of these offshore, diving or fishing? A good friend of mine out of St. Augustine caught these Mutton Snappers last weekend in about 140ft of water.
I was just wondering, Iv never seen any offshore of here myself, but that’s not to say there not there.
These are mostly predominate in the Keys area but there seems to be some off NE Florida too!
Next calm weekend I will be down to go check for them. I haven’t seen any in the past but wouldn’t mind putting a few in the boat. I bet it would be tough to convince some people they were not ARS since we don’t see that many up this way.
Yeah I know, he said they show up on one particular piece of bottom down there every year about this time. You have to fish for them with long light leader because they are so hook shy.
Weird but you never know!
last year i was hearing stories of the st aug guys catching the heck out of them - don’t think many people are fishing here this time of year to know whether or not they are out there…and not many guys here diving 140ft area this time of year either
I know when they shut down the ars in the gulf, those guys tweaked their tactics and started wearing these fish out. That’s the problem withe these dumb ass laws the shut down one fish and anglers turn to other species.
If we did have them here it would not matter much…season would be closed…they have snapper in the name so according to the feds must be endangered.
We see muttons diving but not a lot. Mostly on deep spots around 180-190 around GTown hole but have shot a couple in 100’.
Rob Harding
236 Sailfish 250 4s Yam
Charleston diving
http://www.charlestondiving.com
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I’m a participant in SEDAR 32 this week which is a benchmark assessment of Gray Triggerfish and Blue line Tilefish.
A NC fisherman told me today they catch them off of Frying Pan Shoals too!
Mark, I have seen them in the late summer (august / sept) as the water temps peak. They seem to show up about the same time we catch flags (Yellowtail snapper)
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NMFS = No More Fishing Season
“Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him”
Mark, for the SEDAR 32 are y’all just reviewing data on commercial catches and the recreational data that has been recorded? Have the actual catch studies already occured (if there are/were any)? How does this work for the workshop?
I have caught a few up that way as well not as many as as the ars but also caught a few flags like Paul said! Down in Islamorada right now and they have been chewing hard! 11 in a half day 5 on another half day biggest weighing in at 18 lbs!! A different way of bottom fishing down in these parts as well! The muttons we are finding are on the edge of the rubble/reef 140 feet using big baits(speedos) deboned bump trolling!! Good luck keep us posted on any catches!!
I caught one last year night fishing around Gtown hole. I was excited about bringing a solid fish up and then I thought crap, a red. But after a closer look realized it was a mutton. Caught a lot of them in the keys and they are one of my favorite. Great fighters.
SCDIVER… a SEDAR is the review of Headboat, Charter, MRFFS (which is now being converted to MRIP) data and combined together and then analyzed by scientist in order to come up with the best possible conclusion of the status of a particular stock of fish. In this case it was Gray Triggerfish and Blueline Tilefish.
Out of a Group of about sixty there was four of us that participated that were fishermen. One from NC, myself and two from Florida.
Five days of staring at numbers, graphs and calculations that had my eyes rolling around in my head by days end, but we were able to see some errors in some key things and had them research it a bit deeper and make some changes in order to bring everything more inline to what we see at boat side.
Honestly if fishermen are not involved with these evaluations, it could be even worst than what we are facing now.
I hate to see people that don’t fish or either don’t understand fishing in control of our fish stocks and there status.
We may not be able to change everything that happens but without being there and trying to do our best to understand the process and make a difference, Well we’re at their mercy!
Hope this helps!